College Baseball: Wolves beat Ashford, fall to Wesleyan

March 18, 2007|By American News Sports Staff

MITCHELL - Northern State's baseball team split a pair of games Saturday at Mitchell, defeating Ashford University 7-2 before losing to Dakota Wesleyan 3-2. The hosts from Dakota Wesleyan needed a seventh-inning rally to get by Northern. With one out, Josh Pritt doubled and, after another out, Josh Oltman's RBI single drove in Pritt with the winning run. The Wolves didn't take advantage of runners in scoring position, said coach Curt Fredrickson. “We left the bases loaded in the top of the seventh inning and runners on second and third in the bottom of the fifth,” he said. “We had some chances but didn't get it done with the bats.” Northern received a complete-game effort from starting pitcher Brock Pashen, who gave up just five hits. “Pashen pitched well. He didn't throw a lot of pitches and had them off-balance all day long,” said Fredrickson. Kappes finished with two hits for Northern, which had seven singles in the contest. The Wolves jumped on Ashford early, scoring three times in the opening inning. Justin Downes provided the key hit with a two-run single. Ashford sliced into the lead with two runs of its own in the second inning, but that was all NSU pitcher Downes surrendered. After tallying a single run in the third inning on Aaron Kappes' home run to widen the margin, the Wolves tacked on three more runs in the fifth inning, two runs scoring on Tom Keiser's triple. Downes also pitched a complete game for Northern, striking out nine and walking just two. The Wolves face the same two teams today, Ashford at 11 a.m. and Dakota Wesleyan at 1:30 p.m. Northern State 301 030 0-7 8 0 Ashford 020 000 0-2 7 0 Justin Downes and Mitch Locke; Tyler Sukut and Alex McGlaughlin. 2B - Northern State, Aaron Kappes. 3B - Northern State, Tom Keiser. HR - Northern State, Kappes. Northern State 010 100 0-2 7 1 Dakota Wesleyan 010 001 1-3 5 1 Brock Pashen and Jamie Paul; Freddy Janssen and Jake Roy. 2B - Dakota Wesleyan, Josh Pritt. HR - Dakota Wesleyan, Scott Moerike.